Chapter 207

Chapter 207
## Chapter: 207
Chapter Title: Master of the Four Evils Baal

······ There was no mistaking what my eyes had captured.

Moving in the wake of the Palga Knights was that specific woman.

It was, without question, Isabella.

The woman who was my very beginning.

It felt as though it had only been a moment ago that she disappeared alongside Isabella von Dersian, the representative from the Dersian bloodline.

I had been led to believe certain things based on what Hudson told me.

‘Hadn’t she gone back to her place of origin?’

That had been my assumption.

I presumed she had returned to the Dersian household to take back the life that was rightfully hers.

If that were the case, what was Isabella doing among the Palga Knights at this moment?

‘······ Unless the Palga Knights were the destination she was meant to return to.’

A piece of history I had pushed aside. Wasn’t her goal to restore her standing within the Dersian family?

Because I was convinced of that, I never went looking for her.

I hadn’t even felt the urge to track her progress after we parted.

However, this chance meeting was a turn of events I had never projected.

‘The insignia of Palga. An initiate.’

Furthermore, Isabella seemed to be serving as an initiate within the Palga Knight Order.

She was clad in the same plate marked with the numeral for eight (八) on the pauldrons like the rest, yet unlike the full-fledged knights, her breastplate lacked the ‘eight-pointed star (八芒星).’

Observing the several figures in the rear ranks who also lacked the star, it was clear they were all trainees.

A more detailed inspection revealed that even among the senior knights, the eight-pointed stars possessed subtle variations, which was quite strange.

‘The empire’s emblem is the golden five-pointed star. Why would the Palga Knights utilize an eight-pointed star instead?’

A sudden curiosity struck me.

They were the most powerful military order in the empire.

As the personal guard of the emperor, shouldn’t they be displaying the heraldry of the Arhon Empire?

Throughout Pangeniar, the five-pointed star was the symbol of the divine heavens.

The six-pointed star represented the honor granted to legendary figures, such as the ‘Hexa’ of the ancient empire.

But an eight-pointed star?

Reflecting on it, I couldn’t recall ever seeing documentation regarding an eight-pointed star in the history of Pangeniar.

It had to be a characteristic exclusive to the Palga Knight Order.

“······.”

For a split second.

My gaze collided with Isabella’s.

It was unavoidable given the proximity.

Yet, there wasn’t a flicker of change in the expression or the look Isabella directed toward me.

Was it possible she truly failed to recognize me in this moment?

‘That’s impossible.’

I dismissed the thought internally.

She definitely knew who I was.

There was no way she would fail to identify the silhouette of the ‘Ominous Harbinger.’

Even with my physical form altered, she would have pierced through the disguise.

She was, after all, the person who had served at my side for the longest duration.

‘She’s deliberately acting as though we are strangers.’

The stillness of her features was a necessity here in the capital of the empire.

If Raiga, the Palga Knights’ commander, or the Golden Mask discovered our connection, it would bring about instant, lethal trouble.

She was forced to maintain her composure and avert her eyes out of pure survival.

“Fascinating.”

It was then.

Raiga spoke, approaching me with a voice tinged with a hint of thrill.

In that same moment.

“······!”

“······!”

A sharp light ignited in the eyes of every member of the Palga Knights.

No, it wasn’t limited to the knights.

The eleven high-ranking members of the Reaper Church, the Golden Mask included.

All of them were staring at me, paralyzed by shock.

Likely because I was the actual summoner who had called forth that ‘Baal.’

“The commander··· is··· showing interest···!”

······ Wait. Was it not due to Baal?

The soldier standing nearest to Raiga.

He trembled with a quiet sense of awe.

Like a non-believer witnessing a divine manifestation of a holy deity.

He gazed at me with wide eyes, as if his mind couldn’t process what he was seeing.

Raiga took a moment to look me over, rubbed his chin, and spoke regardless of the tension.

“Even with my perception that peers through all things, I cannot truly define you. You are elusive. You are making it impossible to be measured······.”

It wasn’t just simple curiosity.

He had immediately identified my ‘unobservable’ condition.

In fact, he had seen past the ‘Radiant Pureblood’s Dignity Ring’ that granted ‘unobservable’ and was digging into something far more basic.

Specifically, the act of perceiving me. Randolph.

“Is this truly your original shape?”

······ As I suspected.

Raiga wasted no time in questioning my true nature.

Currently, I was equipped with the ‘Ancient Armor.’

Utilizing its ‘shape-shifting’ ability, I had fashioned a golden mask of a goat and shifted into the ‘Ominous Harbinger’ to project a more terrifying presence.

The Reaper Church leaders hadn’t thought it odd, but Raiga, seeing me for the first time, detected the truth immediately—.

I gave a casual shrug.

“Does that even matter?”

It was of no consequence to me.

In a place like this, nothing was as trivial as one’s ‘true form.’

Weren’t there dozens of people here concealing their faces and their pasts?

Look at the Reaper Church, to begin with.

They never revealed their features, constantly hiding behind masks and illusions.

They themselves were already far removed from their ‘true forms.’

“Ha! You have a point.”

Raiga, catching the drift of my reply, gave a firm nod.

It really was a moot point.

However, the element that sparked his interest wasn’t just that.

Step.

Raiga moved one pace forward and began to slowly unsheathe his weapon.

Shuuuuaaa!

A brilliant golden radiance then washed over Raiga’s edge.

‘Sword aura.’

There was no mistaking it.

That golden vitality wasn’t just sword energy—it was undoubtedly sword aura.

The ultimate power one could only produce after reaching 30Lv in sword mastery!

It was my first time encountering another wielder of sword aura besides myself.

“···!!!”

A few of the Reaper Church leaders glared at Raiga with clear animosity, but I, positioned directly in his path, didn’t flinch.

Seeing my lack of reaction, Raiga’s eyes sparked.

“What really counts is that I detect the same essence on you. The aura of a titan that cannot be measured or tracked, yet cannot be suppressed.”

······ One master recognizes another.

It was that same principle.

To put it another way, he was giving me enough credit to label me a ‘titan,’ comparable to a creature of his own stature.

But he wouldn’t have summoned his sword aura merely to pay a compliment.

There was a real motive behind that movement and those words.

Swoooosh.

Quietly.

Less ostentatious than Raiga’s, but a heavy, azure, and perfect sword aura wrapped around my frame.

“Just as I suspected···!”

In that breath, Raiga let out a small smile, as if his theory had been confirmed.

He had known from the start that I was a fellow practitioner of sword aura.

‘But he wasn’t entirely certain.’

He had waited for me to validate it by displaying the aura myself.

It was proof that he still couldn’t bypass my unobservable state and my concealed attributes.

However, Raiga’s subsequent statement far surpassed what anyone anticipated.

“The twelfth overseer, so you are the ‘actual’ Baal.”

“······!!!”

“·········!!!”

The Four Evils.

Eons ago, during the time when the world’s surface was still intact, these were the four entities of annihilation that pushed the world toward its end.

Massive predators that paralyzed the world with their immense scale and power.

The legends of the Four Evils were still recounted in myths across every land.

But was that the reality?

Had humanity actually succeeded in imprisoning the Four Evils?

‘The four most dominant lineages of the former empire fought their wars using the Four Evils. Palga, Dersian, Arhon, and Rahon.’

Their modern titles were all carried over from that old empire.

Regardless, they firmly believed they held dominion over the Four Evils.

Consequently, they orchestrated their own downfall.

The empire crumbled, and the world was handed over to ruin.

They never even realized it was all part of the plan of destruction, brought on by their misuse of the Four Evils’ strength.

So who was responsible for sealing the remaining Four Evils?

There were stories of Hexa performing the seal, or perhaps other wise men or divine beings.

‘But the Four Evils sealed themselves.’

Raiga was aware of the truth.

He, the one who collected the remnants of destruction, was the closest to the reality of the situation.

As it turned out, the Four Evils weren’t imprisoned by any outside force.

There was no entity capable of capturing those titans.

They had simply locked themselves away and faded from the world like evaporating fog.

After Goddess Lea gave her life to stall the destruction, they retreated into deep, shadowed caverns, awaiting the moment destruction would rise again.

‘The return of the Four Evils, one after another, signifies that destruction is near.’

The presence of the Four Evils was intimately linked to the arrival of destruction.

The first to emerge was Baal.

The rise of the creature from the Practitioner’s Mountain sent every city into a state of panic.

Raiga had been unable to intervene at the time, as he was busy hunting down other pieces of destruction.

But it was confusing, that much was certain.

‘Baal fell into the abyss?’

It was nonsensical.

For a titan like Baal to turn into ‘the abyss itself.’

Wasn’t it?

‘How could the lord of the abyss fall into the abyss?’

The sovereign of the depths.

One of the masters of the abyss, Baal, falling into the abyss made zero sense.

Except for one possibility, it was completely baffling.

‘··· The outer shell is struggling to reclaim its strength. Because it returned without its essence.’

If only the ‘shell’ had been brought back, then it was plausible.

Baal’s core.

The container housing its authentic power clearly hadn’t returned with the body.

‘Dominion over any skill pushed to its absolute limit.’

The shell certainly hadn’t inherited the authority that even deities respected.

Having appeared in the world as a partial being, it instinctively hungered for its power.

So where was the other half, that authority, hidden?

‘······ The twelfth overseer.’

He had heard the whispers.

But he hadn’t given them much thought.

An overseer, nothing more.

Just like the ancient relics of the Reaper Church.

The Palga Knights and the Reaper Church were like oil and water.

A pairing that could never blend, and never would.

Raiga didn’t even approve of those old freaks being allowed in the imperial palace in the first place.

The rise of a twelfth overseer who shouldn’t exist had nothing to do with him.

And yet.

‘I assumed it was just another puppet like the others.’

But the person standing before him was different—massively so.

The same ‘unobservable’ effect as the other overseers.

Yes, he could wrap his head around that much.

It was a quality overseers usually displayed.

The issue was his own ‘gut feeling.’

‘I can sense absolutely nothing.’

It was utterly mesmerizing.

The moment they stood face to face, he felt a chill.

For a titan such as himself to pick up no vibration from another titan!

‘Unobservable’ only blocked specific data-driven perception.

It couldn’t suppress general impressions, vibes, or instincts.

And Raiga was the master of total awareness, capable of evaluating everything with a look.

If even he could sense nothing, then···.

‘It’s more than just being unobservable. It’s an entity that nullifies even my intuition.’

This had to be viewed not as a simple skill, but as a phenomenon.

‘This being was born as a naturally vague, unknowable entity from the start.’

It was simply that sort of existence.

Evaluating or identifying a being born that way was a lost cause from the beginning.

Of course it was mysterious and untouchable.

Therefore, even this current shape was likely not its real core.

So he inquired.

Whether that was its actual form.

—Does that even matter?

The twelfth overseer, the golden goat, dismissed his query with ease.

As if that wasn’t the point of interest.

What could be more significant than that?

‘The core doesn’t matter.’

··· Quite right.

The person’s core wasn’t the priority.

Much more vital was the presence itself.

The fact that an entity who triggered Raiga’s alarm bells just by existing was standing in the center of the empire.

This environment.

This occurrence.

‘It’s hard to credit, but I have no choice but to believe it.’

Initially, he had been skeptical.

The husk of Baal summoned in the empire’s heart.

the person controlling and directing that husk.

‘The power of the elite, which only I, who have mastered the sword to the zenith, can employ.’

If even that was handled with such ease···.

Wouldn’t it be logical to conclude it held the authority?

No.

Raiga shook his head and gave a genuine grin.

‘······ It can truly be seen as Baal itself.’

That golden goat could truly be considered the Four Evils Baal in the flesh!